Crudités with an Avocado Herb Dip

My Christmas gift from the Frenchie was a lovely Swissmar raclette grill. It was a gift that we, but mostly I, picked out, and I couldn’t wait to have friends over to use it.

If you don’t know what raclette is, you might want to avoid it altogether, that is unless you want to develop an insatiable addiction for the gooey, melted cheese that you dream about in your sleep. You’ve been warned, dear readers.

If you ask Frenchie or his mom, they’ll say raclette should only be served with boiled potatoes, charcuterie, cornichons, and maybe some shallots and pancetta. Veggies are supposed to be a rarity on raclette nights, but I thought it wise to front-load the veggies before dinner with a crudites platter.

You don’t need a recipe per se to whip up an awesome crudites platter. I went to the store and picked out some seasonal vegetables. It’s currently winter, (which feels wrong to say given the unseasonably warm weather), so my platter features radicchio, endives, rainbow carrots, rainbow radishes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. I recommend a colorful mix of interesting veggies (read: veggies not regularly seen in a prepared veggie platter). But I do love a good recipe or inspiration for dips. I’m sharing a recipe for a lovely little avocado herb dip.

For plating, you’ll need a large platter, and my Thanksgiving turkey platter works perfectly for this. Start with plating the large and leafy veggies first. Add the remaining veggies, going from largest and heaviest (e.g. carrots) to smallest and lightest (e.g. cucumbers). Finally, I find it looks nice to overlap the smaller veggies over the bigger ones. Enjoy!